Harvest Moon hits Japanese number one

March 9th, 2014, 20:37 Posted By: wraggster

PlayStation 4 sells another 65k in Sony's native market
The new Harvest Moon game stole number one in Japan last week, despite Knack continuing to benefit from its status as a PlayStation 4 pack-in.
Harvest Moon: Tsunagaru Shin Tenchi sold just over 130,000 units on the 3DS, affirming its place as one of Marvelous AQL's most popular franchises.
Knack sold more than 66,000 in its second week. However, 65,000 of those sales came from the PlayStation 4 console bundle, which topped the hardware chart by a comfortable margin.
The software top ten is below, with lifetime sales in parentheses:

• [3DS] Harvest Moon: Tsunagaru Shin Tenchi (Marvelous AQL, 02/27/14) - 130,782 (New)
• [PS4] Knack (02/22/14) - 66,772 (376,076)
• [3DS] Kaseki Horider: Mugen Gear (Nintendo, 02/27/14) - 58,329 (New)
• [PS3] Yakuza: Ishin (Sega, 02/22/14) - 54,148 (192,305)
• [3DS] Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Iru and Luca's Wonderful Mysterious Keys (Square Enix, 02/06/14) - 53,276 (687,709)
• [3DS] Yokai Watch (Level-5, 07/11/13) - 37,493 (496,455)
• [PS3] Deception IV: Blood Ties (Tecmo Koei, 02/27/14) - 23,254 (New)
• [PS4] Yakuza: Ishin (Sega, 02/22/14) - 22,466 (105,006)
• [PSV] Deception IV: Blood Ties (Tecmo Koei, 02/27/14) - 19,322 (New)
• [3DS] Kirby: Triple Deluxe (Nintendo, 01/09/14) - 17,706 (475,502)

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EmuDroid 4: Completed!

March 9th, 2014, 20:28 Posted By: wraggster


[Tony Huang] is checking in with his EmuDroid 4 gaming controller. After tons of redesigns — it is now finished!
We first started following this project back in November, when it was in an early prototype stage. What he has done is crammed a 4″ Android tablet, the guts of a USB SNES controller, a USB OTG adapter and inductive charging unit into a custom designed 3D printed housing.
What we really like about this project is the level of documentation [Tony] has gone into during his many… many… many iterations of the 3D printed housing. For those of you who aren’t engineers or designers, it’s a great insight into what goes into prototyping a product before release. Now just imagine what it was like when we didn’t have 3D printers! http://hackaday.com/2014/03/08/emudroid-4-completed/

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New VR Game Makes You a "Hollywood Hacker"

March 9th, 2014, 20:10 Posted By: wraggster

An upcoming VR game for the Oculus Rift aims to let players 'be a Hollywood Hacker.' Listing inspirations from 'Johnny Mnemonic, Hackers, The Lawnmower Man, and the TRON films,' Polygon claims that the game 'does an amazing job at exploring those hacking tropes and often silly visuals to give the player a sense of control and power. This is "real life" hacking as filtered through a Michael Bay fever dream.'"

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/1...llywood-hacker

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School Tricks Pupils Into Installing a Root CA

March 9th, 2014, 19:54 Posted By: wraggster

I go to secondary school in the UK. I went digging around the computers there and found that on the schools machines, there was a root CA from the school. I then suspected that the software they instruct windows users to install on their own hardware to gain access to the BYOD network installed the same certificate. I created a windows virtual machine and connected to the network the way that was recommended. Immediately afterwards I checked the list of root CA's, and found my school's. I thought the story posted a few days ago was bad, but what my school has done is install their certificate on people's own machines — which I think is far worse. This basically allows them to intercept and modify any HTTPS traffic on their network. Considering this is a boarding school, and our only method of communicating to the outside world is over their network, I feel this is particularly bad. We were not told about this policy and we have not signed anything which would excuse it. I confronted the IT department and they initially denied everything. I left and within five minutes, the WiFi network was down then as quickly as it had gone down, it was back up. I went back and they confirmed that there was a mistake and they had 'fixed' it. They also told me that the risk was very low and the head of networks told me he was willing to bet his job on it. I asked them to instruct people to remove the bad certificate from their own machines, but they claimed this was unnecessary due to the very low risk. I want to take this further but to get the school's management interested I will need to explain what has happened and why it is bad to non-technical people and provide evidence that what has been done is potentially illegal.".

http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/03...ling-a-root-ca

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Razer to release own-brand keyboard switches

March 9th, 2014, 10:27 Posted By: wraggster

Gaming accessories vendor Razer has announced its first own-brand keyboard switches.
The switches, claimed to be the ‘world’s first mechanical switch designed for gaming’, will be featured in the popular BlackWidow gaming keyboards, which were originally released in 2010.
The new switches will come in two forms – the Razer Green Switch, which has a “tactile and clicky” feel, with an actuation force of 50g, and the Razer Orange Switch, a “tactile yet silent” switch requiring a force of 45g.
Razer added in the announcement that the switches would be openly available to other gaming peripheral manufacturers.
Other features of the Razer switches include a lifespan of 60 million key strokes and a 0.4mm actuation point.
“Having used the BlackWidow as my default keyboard for all these years, and watching it evolve is truly amazing,” commented professional gamer Yiliang ‘Doublelift’ Peng.
“Razer takes what is already the best and makes it even better. The new switches feel great and give me total control of each keystroke. This is unlike anything that I have experienced before.”

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...witches/033463

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Video Games Live dates over 50 new concerts around the world

March 9th, 2014, 09:27 Posted By: wraggster

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Harmony's $150 Smart Keyboard remote comes to living rooms this month

March 4th, 2014, 23:28 Posted By: wraggster

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Retail unsure about 4K and wearable tech, PCR survey finds

March 4th, 2014, 22:56 Posted By: wraggster

Retailers are divided over whether wearable technology and 4K displays will provide real sales opportunities, according to PCR research.
The annual PCR?Retail Survey revealed that a very slight majority of retailers and resellers (51 per cent)?wouldn’t consider stocking or repairing emerging tech.
Of those who said the technologies were not of interest, many state they are wary of offering products which may prove difficult to obtain parts for or repair. Others said that the technologies would require more time to mature and prove themselves.
One retailer explained: “I think people are unsure about buying new products right now. They’re sticking with what they’ve got – what they know works.”
Despite the split opinion regarding future technology, retailers are confident about their business in 2014. An overwhelming majority (87 per cent) said that they are confident about the next 12 months, with almost the same number of firms (82 per cent) expecting to still be selling stock in five years’ time.
This confidence comes as a result of a resurgence in traditional computing platforms, according to respondents. Almost a quarter (23 per cent) of firms recorded laptops as their best-selling product in 2013, with 13 per cent seeing their biggest sales in desktops. Both form factors had more popularity with consumers than tablets, which were only a best-seller for a tenth of stores.
One retailer commented: “The desktop PC isn’t going away, regardless of what the scaremongers say."
“This app mentality, where people think there’s an app for everything, just isn’t true. Mobile devices will never manage to replace desktops – the death of the desktop PC isn’t going to come.”
There wan almost even split amongst independent retailers when asked if they are selling more tablets now compared to 12 months ago, with 52 per cent saying they were not. For those that are, the average increase in tablet sales was 104 per cent.
It was also a strong year for independent stores in 2013. Only a quarter of retailers reported a decline in sales from 2012 to 2013, as opposed to more than half (56 per cent), which saw business grow overall year-on-year.

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...y-finds/033405

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Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando Review

March 4th, 2014, 01:20 Posted By: wraggster

Introduction

It wasnt until our close family friends went to Walt Disney World back in 2004 did i really take notice of the theme parks in America, i was very content with going to the likes of the American Adventure and Alton Towers, one was 20 minutes from my house and although a small park it did have enough to make a great day especially when the park wasnt full. Alton Towers however was Britains biggest theme park and you really need to be lucky to get a slow day when you werent queueing for an age.

As good as the UK parks are they are nothing compared to the likes of Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando.

Starting Off

Choosing the Right Tour Operator such as Virgin or Thomson should be your first step, you may get cheaper options but the flight can be a killer, remember to go to the USA you have to book in 3 hours before you depart, then you have a 9 hour flight, paying that bit more is a neccessity, you can fly with the likes of Cosmos/Monarch or Thomas Cook but for quality of service and hidden extras then Virgin or Thomson are your best options.

From the start you need to know that a 2 Week stay in Orlando is going to be expensive, depending on the time of year, if say 4 or 5 of you are going heres a typical breakdown.

Cost of Holiday - £5000 and thats the minimum, we paid this for a 3 bedroomed villa, a hotel in Disney or Universal resorts would be majorly more to pay for, you can opt for a cheaper hotel but be wary and always read reviews. Different times of the year can be vastly more expensive too.
Cost of Car Hire - £500 - Be warned that "free" car hire only pays for the very basic insurances and you will be paying a lot more on top, do your homework when booking, make sure you have the very best insurance, like in this country you need to be protected.
Cost of theme Park Tickets £2000 - If your going to do both Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando, SeaWorld and also Busch Gardens your going to be paying around £400 each for the combined tickets.

Spending Money - For 4/5 of you your going to need at least £110 a day to pay for food and drinks, somedays you may not spend this much but you may also overspend. Petrol for the car you should budget for at least 3 tankfuls in 2 weeks, i would say £130 for that. Now thats roughly £1600 but in Orlando they have the Premium Villas where you get designer clothes at Bargain Prices, bring as much money as you can but watch the weight and keep the tags on the majority of what you buy, you are allowed to bring back a fair amount but if you go over your weight or are silly and bring back 20 ipads then your gonna get stopped by customs.

I would say go for a minimum of £3000 for food/petrol and spends.

So in all budget for around £11000.

The Flight Part

The2nd to worst part of the holiday is flying and on the 4 times we have flown we had one terrible and 3 OK flights. Virgin or Thomson should be the best options for you, make sure to get quotes from both to see which is best, what i will say is that Virgin were easily the best and the added extras made up massively for any extra costs.

The flight journey on our Virgin Plane was great, decent movies, good space and good food too and with staff that were very pleasent and went that extra inch that you needed.

The Airport and Finding Your Location

Depending on which airport you land at is where the fun begins, Sanford is a smaller airport but further away from Orlando and Orlando International is much closer but also massive. If you land at Sanford or Orlando and have a shuttle waiting for you then move to next chapter. If your renting a car then read on, first thing about car rental is that the folks behind the desk will hard sell you an upgrade, refuse at all costs and just say we will check our car first and if its too small then we will come back to you, you will get fleeced for money otherwise, be strong.

If you go with the likes of Alamo then youll get to pick from a load of cars in the same class as the one you have hired, good tip is to go for one with a big boot , If your at Sanford then you need to head to the I4 Motorway and if you havent drove in the USA then it will be a shock for you, its like a free for all, keep to the speedlimit but go into the middle lane, because they enter in the slow lane to us your well advised to keep away from that.

On the large roads in the USA they drive like on a race circuit, if you think idiots in Britain drove bad you aint seen nothing, they overtake, undertake, last second lane changes, be on your guard at all times, if you have a sat nav use it. Like in britain if you see a dodgy area then avoid it.

Accomadation

If your in a hotel just make sure the room is decent first, if not complain and asked to be moved. If your in a Villa youll either register that night or the next morning, if there is any problems report them straight away, if you paid for a top notch villa and it isnt then complain and ask to be moved.

If you have a safe in the Villa use it, if it has an alarm make sure to use that also.

The Parks

The Theme Parks in Orlando are the best in the World, i could go on for hours, big tips are to try all of them if only for a day each, ill do each park one at a time.

Magical Kingdom

This is where you pinch yourself, the dream has come true, rides to see are Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain and thats just a few, awesome park especially for younger children.

Epcot

Very much an underrated park, this has two massive rides in Test Drive and Soarin but so much more including a park on its own with rides/buildings and shops from many regions of the world.

Animal Kingdom

The rapids and Expedition Everest are a must to ride on here, my least favourite out of the Disney parks but still decent.

Disneys Hollywood studios

Here youll find Tower of Terror, The Aerosmith Roller Coaster and Star Wars Star Tours, Toy Story, Indiana Jones Show and Backlot Tour and a heck of a lot more.

Disneys Water Parks

Out of all the water parks in Orlando the 2 Disney water parks are by far the best, they cater for the young up to those who are thrill seekers and theres even some water coasters too.

Seaworld

In my opinion a one visit day only park, good for shows like Shamu and theres one ride similiar to Soarin that i went on once but never found it again.

The Universal Orlando Parks

Universal Studios

You will die and go to heaven here, The Mummy is one of the best rollercoasters in the world, ET, Men in Black, Simpsons Ride are just a few of the world class rides here, quite simply a must visit.

Islands of Adventure

Another dream park, The Hulk Coaster, Spiderman, The rapids get you soaked, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter World are just some of whats here, visit it as soon as you can.

Shopping

The Theme Parks are world class but the shopping is too, you can get designer clothes at the sort of prices you would pay at a supermarket or primark in the UK, its the only place in the world i enjoy my shopping, the premium outlets at both ends of international drive make it a must visit location.

The End

Its not cheap to get to Orlando and but Theme Park Tickets but its so worth it, its much cheaper when you are here and the Parks, Eating out and the Shopping are better than anywhere in the world. Put it on your bucket list to do before you die, save up and live the dream that Walt Disney made for us.

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Raspberry Pi has sold 2.5 million

March 3rd, 2014, 18:59 Posted By: wraggster

Founders launch $10,000 competition to run Quake III on credit-card size hardware
[h=3]Raspberry Pi[/h]

As it celebrates its second birthday, the Raspberry Pi microcomputer has passed 2.5 million units sold.
The Raspberry Pi Model B officially went on sale on February 29, 2012, with a goal of making computer science accessible and affordable for schools. The Linux-based, credit-card size device has now sold more than 2.5 million units, a significant improvement on the 2 million sales reported last November.
In keeping with its underlying goals, the Raspberry Pi Foundation has used its revenue to make "substantial financial contributions" to other open-source projects. However, in a post on the Raspberry Pi website, co-founder Eben Upton described what the company believes is, "a piece of unfinished business."
The VideoCore IV 3d graphics core in the Raspberry Pi's ARM-based system-on-a-chip requires closed-source binary code to work with the hardware.
"The lack of true open-source graphics drivers and documentation is widely acknowledged to be a significant problem for Linux on ARM, as it prevents users from fixing driver bugs, adding features and generally understanding what their hardware is doing," Upton said.
However, Broadcom has now released, "the full documentation for the VideoCore IV 3d graphics core and a complete source release of the graphics stack." This targets Broadcom's BCM21553 smartphone chip rather than the BCM2835 used in the Raspberry Pi, and so Upton has promised a $10,000 prize to the first developer who can make Quake III run at "a playable framerate" using the drivers and Raspberry Pi hardware.
For the competition rules, follow the link.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ld-2-5-million

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Rockstar Games awarded BAFTA Fellowship

March 3rd, 2014, 18:57 Posted By: wraggster

Andy Payne explains the importance of BAFTA's work with the industry
[h=3]BAFTA[/h]BAFTA is the leading independent charity supporting, developing and promoting the art forms of the moving...
bafta.org


Rockstar Games is to be honoured by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) for its work in the industry, with the award to be presented at the new and improved British Academy Games Awards later this month. Co-founders Dan and Sam Houser will pick up the award along with Leslie Benzies and Aaron Garbut.
GamesIndustry International spoke to Andy Payne, chairman of Mastertronic and partner at both AppyNation and Gambitious, about the new format for this year's British Academy Games Awards and the importance of BAFTA to the UK games industry.

Q: In what way does BAFTA support the games industry?
Andy Payne: BAFTA is a highly prestigious organisation and very trusted brand which recognises creativity in the moving image first and foremost. BAFTA have been taking games very seriously now for at least 10 years. Every year the Awards get bigger and better and winning a BAFTA shows that games are now as mainstream as films and TV shows. Having a BAFTA on the shelf is pretty awesome.
Q: How do BAFTA recognise what is creative and boundary pushing in terms of games?
Andy Payne: BAFTA have an amazing network of games industry helpers, many of whom are now members of BAFTA and all of who are involved in creating games. The games committee is headed by Chair, Harvey Elliott who sits on the main BAFTA board. Each member of the committee chairs a jury per award category and hand picks members of that jury. Each jury invests many, many hours into playing all of the long listed games and then meets to discuss and agree the nominations through a democratic voting process. This highly informed crowdsourced approach ensures neutrality and total focus on the creativity rather than the commercial success of any game.
Q: In what way has BAFTA become a recognised authority in the games industry?
Andy Payne: BAFTA have engaged with the games industry from the very start. They reached out, embraced and continue to iterate their activity and policy in games. BAFTA really is a facilitator to the games industry and has become an authority as a direct result of this approach.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...fta-fellowship

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UK chart: Thief steals top spot

March 3rd, 2014, 18:43 Posted By: wraggster

The return of stealth series Thief may have been a critical anti-climax, but it has topped the UK games chart nonetheless.Eidos Montreal's reboot apparently "smashed" what Thief: Deadly Shadows managed at launch way back in 2004, and recorded the second-highest one-week sales of any game in the UK this year. (FIFA 14 holds the crown.)'Good actually' Plants vs Zombies multiplayer spin-off Garden Warfare debuted fourth, whereas Castlevania sequel Lords of Shadow 2 managed 10th. Mind you, LOS2 still recorded the second best week-one sales in the entire Castlevania franchise (behind LOS1).Tales of Symphonia: Chronicles entered 13th on PS3, and Senran Kagura Burst entered 38th on 3DS.The full top-10 ran: Thief (1), Lego Movie Videogame (2), FIFA 14 (3), Pants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare (4), Call of Duty: Ghosts (5), Battlefield 4 (6), Lego Marvel Super Heroes (7), Minecraft Xbox 360 (8), Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag (9), Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (10).

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...teals-top-spot

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Google Glass team forgoes monthly updates for bigger changes, like Kit Kat

March 3rd, 2014, 00:26 Posted By: wraggster

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Broadcom Releases Source For Graphics Stack; Raspberry Pi Sets Bounty For Port

March 2nd, 2014, 00:49 Posted By: wraggster

One of the few but lingering complaints about the Raspberry Pi is that it relies on a proprietary GPU blob for communication between the graphics drivers and the hardware. Today, Broadcom released the full source for the OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0 driver stack for the Broadcom VideoCore IV 3D graphics subsystem running on one of its popular cellphone systems-on-a-chip. It's available under a BSD license, and Broadcom provided documentation for the graphics core as well. The SoC in question is similar to the one used on the Raspberry Pi, and Eben Upton says making a port should be 'relatively straightforward.' The Raspberry Pi Foundation has offered a $10,000 bounty for the first person who can demonstrate a functional port. (The test for functionality is, of course, being able to runQuake III Arena.) Upton says, 'This isn't the end of the road for us: there are still significant parts of the multimedia hardware on BCM2835 which are only accessible via the blob. But we're incredibly proud that VideoCore IV is the first publicly documented mobile graphics core, and hope this is the first step towards a blob-free future for Raspberry Pi.' Side note: the RPi is now two years old, and has sold 2.5 million units.

http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/02...ounty-for-port

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UK government spied on millions of Yahoo webcam users

March 2nd, 2014, 00:22 Posted By: wraggster

The UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) intercepted and stored the webcam images of millions of internet users.
The Guardian reports that in one six-month period, the GCHQ – with aid from the US National Security Agency (NSA) – collected webcam imagery from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts.
The publication reports that Yahoo reacted furiously when questioned about the revelation, denying any prior knowledge of the program.
While the six-month period took place in 2008, last month it was revealed that the GCHQ and the NSA were harvesting data from Angry Birds to track suspected terrorists.
The British spy agency said it would not comment on intelligence matters, but insisted that all of its activities were ‘authorised, necessary and proportionate’.

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...m-users/033385

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'Everyone will be a gamer by 2020'

February 28th, 2014, 01:25 Posted By: wraggster

Analysts have predicted that every consumer will be a gamer within the next six years, as virtual concepts progress a 'gamification' of real life.
Members of IEEE, an organisation “dedicated to advancing technology for humanity”, predicted that 85 percent of everyday tasks will feature an integrated concept of gaming by 2020.
“While video games are seen mainly for their entertainment value in today's society, industries like healthcare, business and education will be integrating gaming elements into standard tasks and activities, making us all gamers,” an IEEE statement explained.
“People will accrue points for regular tasks and each person's point cache will influence their position in society, and compliment their monetary wealth.”
"Social networks that encourage check-ins and stores with loyalty point programs are already utilizing gamification to grow their customer bases. Soon, game-like activities similar to these will be part of almost everything we do," commented Richard Garriott, an IEEE member who coined the term ‘massively multiplayer online role-playing game’ – or ‘MMORPG’.
"Our mobile devices will be the hub for all of the 'games' we'll be playing throughout a normal day by tracking the data we submit and using it to connect everything."
Examples suggested include the measurement of an individual’s business success in ‘game points’, with promotions rewarded by accruing a certain amount of points, encouraging health check-ups and vaccinations by using the concept of real-life ‘hit points’ and integrating gaming systems into schools to provide positive reinforcement.
"A lot of technologies start in other industries and slip their way into gaming, which makes sense for the future of businesses," added Tom Coughlin, an IEEE senior member and technology consultant.
"By 2020, however many points you have at work will help determine the kind of raise you get or which office you sit in. Outside factors will still be important, but those that can be quantified numerically will increasingly be tracked with 'game points'."
"Humans, as mammals, learn more efficiently through play in which they are rewarded rather than other tests in which they are given demerits for mistakes," concluded Elena Bertozzi, another IEEE member and professor of digital game design and Development at Quinnipiac University.
"It is a natural fit to teach through gaming, especially in areas of the world where literacy levels vary and human instinct can help people learn."

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...by-2020/033365

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Woman Attacked In San Francisco Bar For Wearing Google Glass

February 28th, 2014, 01:18 Posted By: wraggster

Sarah Slocum, an early adopter of Google Glass, was bar hopping with friends in San Francisco when a few people in the bar took issue with the eyewear when she was demonstrating it to another patron even though she wasn't recording. When she felt threatened, she informed them that she would start recording. Two of them approached her, yelling and throwing a bar rag at her, and ultimately ripping the Glass from her face and running from the bar with it. She gave chase and eventually got the Glass back, but her purse was gone when she returned to the bar. This physical level of hostility is unusual, but discomfort with Glass is common, especially among those who don't understand how it works. Given that much more hidden spy cameras are available for far less than the $1500 cost of Glass, what will it take for general acceptance to finally take hold?"

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/02...g-google-glass

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US legislators single out violent game makers

February 28th, 2014, 00:50 Posted By: wraggster

Tax Reform Act of 2014 drafters say they're withholding tax credits from violent game devs, but wording covers all software development
American lawmakers aren't constitutionally allowed to block the sale of violent video games, but they're looking at other ways to discourage the industry from creating such titles. The House of Representative's Ways and Means Committee yesterday released its Tax Reform Act of 2014, which it said would make a research and development tax credit permanent except for companies that make violent video games.
The Republican-led Ways and Means Committee's executive summary specifically lists the provision in a section under the heading, "Simplify Code and Lower Rates: Close Lobbyist Loopholes." The summary gives no indication as to what criteria would be used to define a video game as "violent." Even the 979-page draft of the legislation doesn't appear to have any such clause regarding video games. The closest the actual draft comes to addressing the issue is a line altering the tax code to specifically prohibit "any research with respect to computer software" from qualifying for the research credit.
As noted by Washington Examiner columnist Ashe Schow, the violent game provision seems to be at odds with one of the Republicans' stated goals for the Tax Reform Act. As the executive summary claims on the page following its violent game exemption to the R&D tax credit, "The Tax Reform Act of 2014 stops the practice of using the tax code to pick winners and losers based on political power rather than economic merit..." It lists alternative energy credits (which would be eliminated under the proposed legislation) as one way the existing tax code seeks to pick winners.
The Entertainment Software Association released a statement criticizing the move, saying, "This industry, like all software developers who would be impacted under this proposal, invests billions of dollars every year in research and development and this proposal threatens American technological advancement and economic growth. We look forward to continuing to educate policymakers on our societal and economic contributions and the need to preserve and expand this unique industry."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...nt-game-makers

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"Free-to-play" misleading advertising in Europe

February 28th, 2014, 00:49 Posted By: wraggster

European Commission meets with devs to improve consumer protections, wants them to stop calling games free if they have in-app purchases
Complaints from consumers who unwittingly purchased in-game upgrades in free-to-play titles have become common enough that the European Commission is taking action on the matter. EC members are meeting with tech companies and national enforcement authorities today and tomorrow to go over concerns about consumer protections in the burgeoning market, the group announced today.
"Consumers and in particular children need better protection against unexpected costs from in-app purchases," consumer policy commissioner Neven Mimica said in a statement. "National enforcement authorities and the European Commission are discussing with industry how to address this issue which not only causes financial harm to consumers but can also put at stake the credibility of this very promising market. Coming up with concrete solutions as soon as possible will be a win-win for all."
The Consumer Protection Cooperation and EC member states have released a list of common positions on the subject, with misleading advertising at the top.
"The use of the word 'free' (or similar unequivocal terms) as such, and without any appropriate qualifications, should only be allowed for games which are indeed free in their entirety, or in other words which contain no possibility of making in-app purchases, not even on an optional basis," the group said.
Beyond that, the CPC and EC want developers to cut out any direct calls for purchasing in-game items (such as "Buy now!" or "Upgrade now!") in any title likely to appeal to children. On top of that, in-app purchases should not be made without the consumer's explicit consent, and all apps and app listings should prominently feature an e-mail address to which customers can direct questions before they decide to play or even download a title.
The EC has said the purpose of the meetings is to make sure there's a common understanding between authorities and game companies on these subjects, but said it will work with national consumer rights enforcement bodies to follow through with any action deemed necessary.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...sing-in-europe

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GamesMaster magazine releases redesign issue

February 28th, 2014, 00:10 Posted By: wraggster

UK multi-format magazine GamesMaster has launched its first redesign issue, which is on sale from today.
Helmed by new editor Joel Gregory and featuring Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls Online on the cover, the new GM promises more in-depth review and preview coverage, plus regular features that celebrate the culture of gaming.
<figure style='font: 14px/23.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0.45em 0px 20px 20px; padding: 0px; outline: 0px; border: 0px currentColor; width: 230px; color: rgb(38, 38, 38); text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; float: right; display: block; white-space: normal; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;' class="responsive single-article__canvas single-article__canvas--large single-article__canvas--offset zoomhover" title="" data-media992="http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_3156/image_315614_460.jpg" data-media768="http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_3156/image_315614_320.jpg" data-media480="http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_3156/image_315614_480.jpg" data-media="http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_3156/image_315614_320.jpg"></figure>This month's issue offers new looks at Evolve, South Park: The Stick of Truth and Dark Souls 2, plus reviews of Square Enix reboot Thief, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 and more.
Meanwhile, new section CultureMaster introduces the chef tasked with cooking up video game cuisine in real life, and a revamped Retro section dissects Planescape: Torment.
Issue 275 of GamesMaster is available to buy now in shops, or you can order your copy online.
You can also download a copy with a one month free trial on Apple Newsstand or Googleplay.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...edesign-issue/

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